APPLES. 81 



depressed, and surrounded with a few knobs. Stalk, about an inch 

 long, inserted in a shallow russety cavity. Flesh, yellow. 



Specific gravity of the juice, 1080. 



A valuable cider apple. 



liaised by Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., from the Cherry Apple, impregnated 

 with the pollen ot the Golden Pippin. It was named Foxley after the seat of the 

 late Uvedale Price, Esq., in whose garden, where it had been Drafted, it first 

 attained maturity. Mr. Knight says, "There is no situation where the common 

 Wild Crab will produce fruit, in which the Foxley will not produce a fine cider." 



FOX- WHELP. Fruit, medium sized, two inches and a half wide, 

 by the same high ; roundish, inclining to ovate, uneven in outline, 

 caused by several obtuse ribs, which terminate in ridges round the eye ; 

 in good specimens one side is convex and the other is flattened. 

 Skin, beautifully striped with deep bright crimson and yellow ; on 

 the side next the sun it is darker crimson than it is on the shaded 

 side, where the yellow stripes are more apparent ; the surface is 

 marked with several dark patches like scabs, which are a never- 

 failing character. Eye, very small, set in a narrow, shallow, and plaited 

 basin ; segments, short, somewhat erect, and slightly divergent. 

 Stamens, marginal ; tube, funnel-shaped. Stalk, three-quarters of an 

 inch long, obliquely inserted by the side of a fleshy swelling, which 

 pushes it on one side and gives it a curving direction. Flesh, yellow 

 tinged with red, tender, and with a rough acid flavour. Cells, open, 

 elliptical, pointed. 



This is one of the most valuable of the cider apples of Here- 

 fordshire. 



The earliest record we have of the Fox-whelp is by Evelyn in his " Pomona," 

 which is an appendix to the Sylva " concerning fruit trees in relation to cider " 

 This was first published in 1664, and at thai time and long alter the great apple 

 of Herefordshire was the Red-streak. The Fox-whelp is disposed of in a lew 

 words "Some commend the Fox-whelp." Ralph Austen, who wrote irx 1653, 

 makes no mention of it when he says, " Let the greatest number of fruit trees not 

 onely in the orchards but also in the fcilds be Pear-maines, Pippins, Gennet- 

 Moyles, Red-streaks, and such kinds as are knowne by much experience to be 

 especiall good for cider." Neither is any notice taken of it by Dr. Beale in his 

 " Herefordshire Orchards, written in an epistolary address to Samuel Hartlib, 

 Esq.," in 1656. The first notice of it after Evelyn is by Woi ledge in 1676, who 

 merely says, " The Fox-whelp is esteemed among the choice cider fruits." Jn 

 Evelyn's lime it appears to have been regarded as a native of Gloucestershire, for 

 Dr. Smith in the " Pomona," when writing of" the best fruit (with us in Glouces- 

 tershire)," says, " The cider of the Bromsbury Crab and Fox-whelp is not fit for 

 drinking till the second year, but then very good ; " and in the quotation at the 

 head of this paper " a person of great experience " calls it " the Fox- whelp of the 

 Forest of Deane." 



Although all who have noticed the Fox-whelp up to this period have spoken of 

 its merits as a cider apple, its cultivation must not have been on an extensive 

 scale, otherwise it would have been better known than it appears to have been. 

 Even Philips, in his celebrated poem on " Cyder," seems as ignorant of its exist- 

 ence as many of the writers on orchards were at that period. The first apprecia- 

 tive notice of it with which we are acquainted is found in a letter to a friend 

 written by Hugh Stafford of Pynes in Devonshire, Esq., bearing date 1727. He 

 says, " This is an apple long known, and of late years has acquired a much greater 



6 



